Abstract This study uses data from two National Graduate Survey (NGS) cohorts—graduates of 2015 and graduates of 2020—to investigate how educational credentials impact differences in early career income between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous post‐secondary graduates in Canada and whether these differences are conditional on the labour market returns to education credentials. The results suggest that increasing educational attainment (i.e., university, and more specifically graduate, degrees) as well as increasing Indigenous presence in certain fields of study could contribute to reducing early career income gaps. The empirical findings support calls for broad‐based policies aimed at expanding Indigenous university attainment and raising labour market returns to Indigenous graduates' credentials as well as distinctions‐based policies tailored to local contexts.
Mongeon et al. (Sun,) studied this question.